Dianne Feinstein has been a U.S. senator from California for almost three decades, during which her name and image have graced countless news pieces. But apparently no one at the California Employment Development Department noticed when Feinstein — or rather a scammer using her name and Social Security number — filed for unemployment benefits, collecting $21,000.
That same fraudster collected at least $200,000 in benefits using multiple names at an address in Roseville (Placer County), federal investigators said Thursday.
“Think about this for a minute: EDD issues a debit card to Senator Dianne Feinstein!” Assemblymember Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, said in a statement. “How does that happen? I’ll tell you how, EDD is complicit in the fraud by mailing out Social Security numbers to scammers; or they are utterly incompetent by not even checking eligibility before they issue the debit card.”
EDD said it’s committed to combating fraud. “EDD has enhanced its fraud detection and prevention tools to ensure only valid claimants receive timely benefits,” said Nancy Farias, EDD’s chief deputy director of external affairs, legislation and policy, in a statement. We will work with law enforcement to hold those accountable who seek to defraud the unemployment system.”
Investigators say widespread unemployment fraud in California has added up to hundreds of millions of dollars for scammers, many of them prison inmates. A surge of jobless claims and a new federal program allowing self-employed people to collect benefits created fertile ground for the scams.
Bank of America, which issues the debit cards for unemployment benefits, did notice that a sitting senator was receiving them and began an investigation.
On Thursday federal investigators said they’d arrested Andrea M. Gervais, also known as Andrea Dangerfield, in the case; they said she had worked for EDD until two years ago. EDD fired her for altering a money order to make it payable to herself, according to an affidavit.
In separate cases made public on Thursday, three other women were charged with unemployment fraud: Nyika Gomez, 40, also a former EDD employee; Sholanda Thomas, 36, an inmate at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla (Madera County); and Christina Smith, 37, a parolee from the Chowchilla prison.
Thomas and Smith conspired to submit fraudulent jobless claims for almost $300,000 using their own names and those of several inmates, according to an indictment.
Gomez, a San Diego resident who worked at an EDD call center this summer, allegedly conspired on unemployment scams with her boyfriend, a prisoner serving 94 years to life at California State Prison, Sacramento, for murder, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said.
Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
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December 19, 2020 at 05:33AM
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Scammer uses Dianne Feinstein’s name to claim unemployment benefits in California, feds say - San Francisco Chronicle
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